'And McMaster alleged that Moscow has engaged in a variety of tactics, including "propaganda, disinformation and political subversion" aimed at fracturing the West -- tactics the US intelligence community later said Russia exhibited during the 2016 US presidential election.
These actions were meant "to collapse the post-World War II --certainly the post-Cold War -- security and economic order in Europe and replace that order with something that is more sympathetic to Russian interests," McMaster told a group at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington in 2015.'<blockquote>'
RussiaMcMaster has struck a much tougher tone when talking about Russian President Vladimir Putin than Trump has, particularly with regard to his actions in Ukraine. McMaster has said the Kremlin carried out a "land grab."
He also told the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2015 that it was "plausible" Russian troops might carry out a similar type action in the Arctic.
And McMaster alleged that Moscow has engaged in a variety of tactics, including "propaganda, disinformation and political subversion" aimed at fracturing the West -- tactics the US intelligence community later said Russia exhibited during the 2016 US presidential election.
These actions were meant "to collapse the post-World War II --certainly the post-Cold War -- security and economic order in Europe and replace that order with something that is more sympathetic to Russian interests," McMaster told a group at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington in 2015.
McMaster also told the Virginia Military Institute in November that Russia, along with China, North Korea and Iran, represented "hostile revisionist powers" that need to be confronted.
In order to confront Russia, McMaster, who was tasked by the Army with reviewing the Kremlin's use of "hybrid warfare" in Ukraine, has called for a more robust military presence to be deployed to Russia's borders to "ratchet up the costs" of future aggression.
Afghanistan and IraqMcMaster received the Silver Star for his actions during the Gulf War, but it was his command of US troops in 2005 in Tal Afar, Iraq, that helped shape his views on modern conflicts and his belief that winning war requires forces on the ground that can change the political calculus.
He received accolades for his success in pacifying the city at the apex of violence in Iraq, pioneering some of the counterinsurgency tactics that formed the backbone of the 2007 strategy used by Gen. David Petraeus.
The general is quick to argue against the notion that new technologies, such as drones, or tactics like Special Forces raids can be a substitute for land forces and engagement with local populations, two main characteristics of counterinsurgency.
"Wars like those in Afghanistan and Iraq cannot be waged remotely," he wrote in a 2013 editorial in The New York Times titled "the Pipe Dream of an Easy War."
McMaster has been highly critical of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, saying they were too reliant on technology, risk averse and constrained by political considerations in war -- including a desire to get out as fast as possible before victory was achieved.
He has also been critical of an over-reliance on commando raids, drone strikes and proxy forces, which Obama employed in the fight against ISIS.
"Raids, because they are operations of short duration, limited purpose and planned withdrawal, are often unable to effect the human and political drivers of armed conflict," he wrote in an essay for the Defense Entrepreneurs Forum in 2014, adding that "reliance on proxies" was also "problematic due to issues involving capability as well as willingness to act consistent with US interests." '
- Ryan Browne,
What is Trump's new national security adviser thinking? February 22, 2017</blockquote>
Context<blockquote>
'..an immediate end to the Russian occupation of Crimea.''Crimea cannot be resolved under Putin; debating it only plays into Putin's hands.''..think boldly about a new security arrangement for the whole of Europe – one that will bring Russia in rather than leaving it outside feeling vulnerable..''We have no experience in stopping a nuclear war.' - Sidney DrellTransparency International</blockquote>